As the slight spring breeze wafted through the ruins of Arab Ki Sarai, adjacent to Humanyun’s tomb, it carried with it the strains of scintillating Sufi music that filled the Delhi evening with a sense of déjà vu. Jahan-e-Khusrau, the three-day annual world Sufi music festival was back in Delhi after three years with an array of Sufi singers – Malini Awasthi, Sonam Kalra, Daler Mehndi, Hans Raj Hans, Ani Choying Drolma from Nepal, Murad Ali, Ustad Iqbal Ahmad Khan, Satinder Sartaj, the Viuna Music Ensemble (Iran), Deveshi Sahgal, and Smita Bellur (Bangalore). Founded by Muzaffar Ali and held under the aegis of the Rumi Foundation, the festival was supported by the Government of Delhi, ICCR, and the D S Puri Foundation.
This year the festival was dedicated to Hazrat Baba Fariduddin Ganjshakar, the patron saint of Punjab, and the pir of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. “Each year Muzaffar sahib has a theme and that makes the festival very special”, says Malini Awasthi who has been associated with Jahan-e-Khusrau for the last ten years. “And each year the magic, the people, the ambience, the grace is like a tradition – similar yet beautiful in all aspects”, she says. Malini gives credit to Ali for not just recreating the festival visually but also in spirit. “He truly imbibes the very spirit of Sufi music. During rehearsals, he makes sure that we all eat together. Meera, his wife, meticulously designs costumes and sets. It is because of this that Jahan-e-Khusrau becomes a tradition that is not just about sufi music and singing but a part of your life.” Malini goes on to speak about one instance where a festival was to be organised in Kashmir a few years back and the permission to perform in the open was cancelled. “Overnight, Muzaffar saheb and Meeraji, with the help of their staff and tailors masked the entire auditorium in black and lit it with lamps and lights to achieve the desired effect. It was all magical,” she recalls. Even as she enthralled the crowds with her rendition of ‘har haraf sar masti, har baat hai rindana’, Amir Khusrau’s kalaam, she personally feels that this festival is “all about a soul stirring performance and how deeply you feel what you sing”. And with Hazrat Naseer Niyazi’s “Ik jhalak koi dikhakar reh gaya, sara aalam jagmaga kar reh gaya”, she had the audience in raptures.
Spreading compassion
Hans Raj Hans too has been associated with Jahan-e-Khusrau for long and reiterates that Ali has a deep understanding of sufi. “It is the most beautiful platform to showcase my talent,” he says, “Sufi is a thought that can create love between countries, religions and across borders. It is about humanity; it doesn’t belong to any sect.” He acknowledges the fact that though Bollywood singing gave him enough money, it did not give him the satisfaction that Sufi music did. In the soon to be released Hollywood film Viceroy’s House , he has rendered two Sufi songs with A R Rahman; he chooses what he wants to sing carefully knowing that Sufism alone shall give his soul peace.
Fakhroddin Ghaffari of the Viuna Music Ensemble along with his group created sheer magic on stage with Persian lyrics all composed by Majid Vatanian and the prominent use of instruments like the daf. “Indian and Persian cultures share a lot. They are both very deep and share the language, the food, clothes, social culture, music, et al. And when we play in India, it’s like playing at home,” says the Delhi-based singer whose Indian favourite Sufi singers include “everyone I can think of!”
Rendering ‘Woh har dil ko apna banana bhi chahe’, was the first time performer Smita Bellur, a Kannadiga from Bengaluru who was a software engineer until 2013 and took to singing classical and Sufi only later. “I started learning classical in 2009”, Smita smiles as she speaks about working on her diction and being given this opportunity to sing at Jahan-e-Khusrau.
In all, Jahan-e-Khusrau does transport you into a utopian world where the soul seems to be in sync with the body and the surroundings merge with your being.
